Louis CK tops $1m sales, gives money to charities and staff
updated 10:50 pm EST, Thu December 22, 2011
Louis CK shares windfall from gig experiment
Louis CK provided an update late Wednesday showing that he had made $1 million from his direct-to-the-Internet comedy special. The tally was double what he'd seen a week earlier and was enough that he was giving money away. About $250,000 was going to staff as a "big fat bonus," while $280,000 was going to charities such as charity:water, Green Chimneys, Kiva, The Fistula Foundation, and The Pablove Foundation.
About $250,000 was needed to cover the costs of the production. Only $220,000 was going to Louis himself, which he he thought was "enough."
"Some of that will pay my rent and will care for my childen [sic]," he said. "The rest I will do terrible, horrible things with and none of that is any of your business."
He suggested that he might go silent for some time on what's happening with the results of the special.
Although helped by his reputation in traditional formats, Louis and his comedy special are considered evidence of how acts don't need to go through major movie or music publishers to get widespread adoption. He also helped show that leaving videos unprotected didn't necessarily lead to more piracy and might have actually helped sales, since viewers could be guaranteed of playing the video on most any device they have.
